“Does a woman change her personality when she is in a leadership role?  If so, how does she change?”

When I was asked this question, I wasn’t sure if, as a man, I was the right person to answer it.

So I contacted my friend, Dr Laurie Mattera, of Joyful Souls OnLine, for her opinion on the matter and asked her to answer the question.

Here is what Dr Laurie Mattera had to say:

“I have been in positions of leadership, and I have worked with women in leadership roles.  I’m glad to say that for the most part, women hang on to their unique personalities when they are in a position of power or leadership. 

As with all of these controversial topics, however, much depends on the individuals involved, whether man or woman. 

For example, the women who are respected as leaders and make the most progress are the ones who practice good leadership skills (such as edifying those under their charge and being supportive and positive in their leadership). 

This would hold true for any leader, whether a man or woman.  In my experience, it is rare, but unfortunate, that there are times a woman has to “prove” she can lead as well as a man. 

Some women feel they cannot be feminine in a leadership role, for fear of not being taken seriously.  Others, when assertive, still get labelled as being a “bitch”…I might add this label can come from other women as well as the men she is leading.

Fortunately, it seems we are becoming more accepting of women in leadership roles in America. 

As long as she is good at what she does, incorporates good leadership principles, and sets a good example, a woman need not change her personality in order to succeed.”

Thanks, Laurie, I fully agree with your thoughts.

Let us know whether you felt that had to change your personality once you moved into a leadership role, in order to be successful.

If you want to learn more about creating highly engaged teams or being a better leader click the link to make an appointment to talk about how I can help.

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Today, in the new corporate culture, modern HR personnel are compelled to have in-depth knowledge about the company’s significant strengths.

The human resources profession has changed a lot over the years.

As a result, HR professionals are expected to be more than just human resources representatives in today’s competitive work environment. They have been tasked with new jobs and new responsibilities to keep up with the fast pace of change.

They are expected to take on new responsibilities, including talent acquisition, workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives, and organisational development. In this blog post, we will discuss three new roles that modern-day HR professionals need to fill.

What are Human Resources?

Human resources (HR) are the people who manage an organisation. They make sure to have a healthy working environment where everyone is comfortable with each other’s presence while also supporting one another towards achieving company goals together and the set targets of the organisation.

Today’s work scenario has changed drastically due to technological evolution. It has led to the emergence of new job profiles that turned out to be a crucial part of any successful business venture.

HR professionals not only help to manage employee issues but also impact organisational strategy and cultural development. They work on the more significant picture tasks that ensure employees fit into the company mission and vision successfully while staying engaged or motivated at all times. If you are an aspirant who wants to know how to begin a career in Human Resources, you must develop several skills to become a people person.

Employee demographics will change over time, allowing them to continue to meet their needs and preferences. However, HR Professionals need different human resource management skills to do their work well.

Three new roles of human resource professionals

The future of HR depends on how it aligns with forward-thinking practises. All the executive HR professionals must see that the department transforms itself into a dynamic environment and contribute to modern thinking.

Human resource professionals have multiple job titles with roles and responsibilities such as hiring, recruiting, training, development, and managing employees. The three new job roles in the human resource department include:

1. Human Resource Data Detective
2. Strategic HR Business Continuity Director
3. Workplace Environmental Architect

1. Human resource data detective

Through the functions of providing functions and analysis, the Human Resource Data Detective performs their role of gathering, compiling and ensuring quality data is made available for the whole business.

With excellent discipline, the HR data detective investigates people’s data from multiple sources, including HR information system data, employee surveys, time-tracking and learning management systems. They also possess the skill to transcribe unstructured information into usable data sources. Relentless, diplomatic and curious candidates who can carry out technology in HR trends are well-suited for this role.

An HR data detective requires a minimum of five years of experience with people’s analytics or enterprise-level HR and a four-year degree in maths, physical science, philosophy, economics, law or accountancy, and a technical understanding of data architecture. You can take up the HR data detective role and carry out the following responsibilities:

• Investigating trends and inconsistencies in the provided data
• Integrating and streamlining all HR data to improve data reliability, efficiency, and quality
• Being accessible and guiding the business through the data
• Supports other employees ethical use of data
• Collaborating with HR specialists with recruiting and learning

Other than five years of experience and a four-year degree in a particular subject. the skills and qualifications required to be an HR data detective include:

• A background data engineering or data sciences
• Knowledge in SQL, Cloud and Python
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to transfer technical findings into accessible data
• Good people’s skills

2. Strategic hr business continuity director

As the leader of implementation, maintenance, and development of HR-based business programs, Strategic HR Business Continuity Director protects the workforce and ensures its productivity.

In addition, the roles are responsible for taking care of the business continuity planning leads and establishing strategies for employees to function without the risk of endangerment.

Business firms require this modern human resource professional to lead these interlocked initiatives. They are also required to mitigate incidents and perform cross-functional partnerships such as supporting Work From Home (WFH) Facilitators.

Furthermore, you will have to organise educational programs that cover the whole company and establish procedures for emergency planning. Such programs focus on employee safety and preparedness, organisational actions taken on behalf of personnel and partners working in impacted areas, and the health and well-being of all workers.

The key responsibilities that you as a Strategic HR Business Continuity Director must perform include:

• Partnering with corporate IT and CHRO (Chief Human Resource Officer) to ensure the strategy is in play.
• Collaborating data from business continuity leads to examining current situational analysis.
• Verifying the workers and the managers receive training for remote work from WFH facilitators.
• Reviewing Paid Time Off (PTO), sick leave and usage of paid vacation with CHRO.
• Identifying cross-training opportunities for employees to take up more significant roles in the absence of other employees.
• Reaching out with other Strategic HR Business Continuity Directors to discuss and share employee best practises.

The skills and qualifications required to perform this role include:

• Undergraduate degree in IT, audit, or HR, or and equivalent work experience
• An understanding of incident response, particularly concerning training local and global crisis response teams for business continuity and resiliency
• Excellent training, communication, presentation and coaching skills
• Ability to engage, train and persuade at all levels
• Experience in organising and operating organisation-wide programs and cross-functional teams
• Solid analytical, organisational and problem-solving skills
• Capacity to manage resources to meet deadlines
• Excellent decision-making and interpersonal skills

3. Workplace environmental architect

Another human resource professional role is Workplace Environmental Architect, who facilitates management, corporate real estate, and HR teams. Business firms reacquire this personnel to ensure the office is designed through the health and wellness of the employees and customers.

With expertise in real estate acquisition, facilities management, and human-centred design, a workplace environmental architect is hired to bring the company’s vision to life. In addition, they are given the responsibility of the company’s aggregated approach to health and wellness.

By designing strategies for the wellness of the workers, a workplace environmental architect creates a healthy and positive workplace culture. They need to be up-to-date on the ecological and public health, emotional, physical and spiritual well being of the atmosphere. Through such ideologies, they see that all the products in the building will not harm the employees and benefit the company’s real estate holdings.

A candidate with expertise in human-centred architecture and the ability to carry out the company’s mandate to create a nurturing workplace will be appropriate for this role. They should also be able to monitor the market’s innovative trends and wellness solutions.

Other responsibilities of a workplace environmental architect include:

• Optimise and facilitates a salutary workplace
• Keeps track of innovative health solutions like temperature sensing
• Incorporates nature connecting interior designing
• A business partner from HR to real estate teams
• Frequently review and analyse scientific literature
• Guides the purchase of healthy products

The skills and qualifications required for this role are:

• Education or work experience in architecture and design, including health wellness
• Knowledge of building certification programs, such as LEED and WELL
• Passion for understanding anthropology, sustainability, and wellness
• Teamwork and successful work relationships
• Adaptability to different client needs
• Innovative and balanced thinking capability with commercial awareness

Functions and roles of the HR department

More than ever, modern HR professionals require a complete, in-depth understanding of their organisation’s core competencies to precisely recruit individuals that match the job requirements and company culture.

Regardless of the new job roles and requirements, the essential function of the HR department stands the same. From agile compensation strategies to hiring and firing of employees, the functions of these roles include:

• Hiring and recruiting: HR managers monitor open jobs and ensure that they are filled on time.
• Training and development: Create training for new and exciting employees to speed up and improve their skill set. They also collaborate with department heads to understand the current training needs of the employee.
• Remuneration management: The responsibility of payroll generally falls to the HR department. It is also in charge of administering the business’s compensation programs.
• Employee relations: Maintain company management and employee relationship to dissolve disputes between them. The HR department mediates and handles everything,
• Onboarding: Dynamic onboarding experience will help new hires to join the existing employee seamlessly. It helps them catch up to their speed and understand the office culture in a better manner.
• Time-tracking: By automating the entire process, HR makes it simple to handle staff timesheets and leave requests. Employees may submit their timesheets through the HR system, and leave requests are immediately delivered to their department heads and human resources managers.
• Performance appraisal: A performance appraisal or a performance review is a technique of evaluating an employee’s job performance. It is a standard practice in most businesses.
• Employee benefits management: It is critical to provide appropriate incentives to employees to retain top talent. Employees do more than receive a salary. It is better to ask the employee to choose the best benefits possible,
• Promotions: Promotions are usually based on competence and seniority. They are an essential component of a successful succession plan and an excellent method to keep top performers learning and getting better.
• Problem-solving: Quality circles are a type of problem-solving group that can include any number of individuals to solve problems innovatively
• Total quality management: It is a company-wide endeavour to develop a culture in which workers constantly improve their capacity to offer items and services that consumers will value.
• Information sharing: HR acts as a central place for sharing information for the employees. It works through a newsletter that entails safety procedures, layoff announcements, acquisitions, and impactful events that are relevant for the workforce.
• Organisational development: Focus on making the organisation more effective through job analysis and job design. HR performs macro-level activities to initiate organisational change and design processes.
• Data and analytics management: It involves the capacity to make data-driven decisions, in which you can read, comprehend, generate, and communicate data and information while also influencing decision making.

In summary

The above mentioned are the three avant-garde roles that every HR must adorn. The operational responsibilities of HR executives in the modern era are shifting to align with forward-thinking practises. They must lead organisations in advancing corporate objectives and work in parallel with their new corporate policies.

Successful HR professionals are becoming successful planners, adaptive to technology, quick to accommodate change and employee-centred. With the emergence of new roles of the modern human resource professionals, drastic healthy changes in culture will be introduced in the workplace, enabling the employees to enjoy their careers.

About the author

Shahista Tabassum is a senior IT Technical Trainer at Time Training Center.  She has extensive work experience of 11 years working in various roles as a software developer, It Consultant and Technical Trainer. She spends her free time learning new things that will enhance productivity and in volunteering activities that help kids to learn new things.

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The goal of all entrepreneurs is to enable their businesses to be prominent in their respective industries and grow their enterprises. But no matter the quality of the products or services offered, they won’t generate sales if the target audience is unaware of their existence. One of the most effective ways to create brand awareness is by leveraging the tools most consumers use in today’s digital age – the search engines. And what better way to let these websites work for you than by incorporating SEO or search engine optimisation into your campaign.

While the concept behind SEO might sound simple, its proper execution can be tricky, especially when building links. For this reason, it’s usually a good idea to hire a reputable link building agency like Ocere to do the things for you.  However, if you’re still unconvinced of having a professional firm’s services at your disposal, here are some more reasons why you should invest in experts instead of taking on the responsibility yourself.

1. Improve your rankings

Google’s ranking algorithm measures the authority of a website through the links it acquires. In other words, the primary goal behind the link-building process is for an online domain to achieve high rankings in the search results for its chosen keywords. However, while this idea seems simple, getting the backlinks can be a time-consuming and complicated process. After all, not only does it involve top-quality publishing content, but it also requires the proper incorporation of keywords into the material and communicating with other authority websites.

By hiring specialists, you won’t have to do the job yourself. You’re far more likely to get the intended outcome in a shorter timeframe because they know the most effective way to build the desired links. As a result, many authoritative sites will vouch for your web pages.

2. Draw organic traffic to your website

Another advantage of hiring a professional agency is that it can enable your website to draw in a high volume of traffic via backlinking and maintain relevance. To put it another way, you’ll improve your chances of getting visitors organically through credible web pages with a respectable domain authority. In addition, experts will know how to ensure that the connections will remain long after the strategy has been established. In doing so, users in search of your offerings will always be guided to your site. And this will improve your rate of conversion in the process.

3. You avoid making mistakes

Search engine optimisation can be complicated, and building links is no exception. The job requires a fair amount of knowledge and experience to execute correctly, and any mistakes can lead to the opposite of the intended effect. Apart from dividing the attention of your entrepreneurial venture, committing any errors can do just as much damage to your ranking on the search engine results pages or SERPs as much as success can elevate your position. This is why many prefer to leave the job up to the experts.

4. Stay on top of current trends

The algorithm behind many search engines like Google constantly changes and evolves to better suit the needs of internet users. This means that methodologies and techniques that work today may not necessarily lead to the same outcome tomorrow. With the aid of a link-building agency, you won’t have to worry about staying on top of current trends because they can do it for you. You’ll always have access to the right strategies so long as you have the experts who can do it for you.

5. Enable you to focus on priorities

Building a brand or company is hard enough by itself. If you add additional workload to your business, it won’t be able to focus its efforts where it needs to be. More importantly, you’ll end up committing more resources to the job by keeping it in-house rather than outsourcing it to a capable agency. So, if you want to establish an authoritative brand without spending more than you need to, investing in experts can help you get the returns you want.

Conclusion

Link-building is an essential component of any search engine optimisation strategy. However, you’ll need to have experienced and capable individuals to do it for you to maximise its effect. By hiring an agency, you’ll be able to concentrate your efforts on the core work of your company without making concessions that may compromise your link-building efforts.

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Reward Your Employees

One of the most essential things you can do as a manager or business owner is to demonstrate to your employees that you value their contributions by recognizing them for their efforts. Although you must pay them, knowing that your efforts are appreciated by your superiors can be a powerful motivator to go the additional mile on occasion. The gesture need not be grand or extravagant; a box of cookies in the cafeteria on a Friday afternoon, an afternoon off to attend their children’s school play, or even a simple pat on the back and a heartfelt ‘thank you or gift cards for employees can go a long way toward showing staff that you value their contributions. Rewards also serve to foster employee loyalty, which results in lower rates of staff turnover, which in turn lowers recruitment and training expenses while also motivating employees to be more productive.

Hold regular meetings with your team

Communication can be done on a daily basis via email or communication systems such as Zoom, but nothing can truly replace conventional beginning and end-of-week complete team meetings that have been held for decades. You should take advantage of this opportunity to congratulate everybody who has achieved success, remind them of any major events coming up, and overall get a sense of how everyone is feeling at the time.

Demonstrate your compassionate side.

This can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish as a leader because you must strike a balance between demonstrating that you are in command and not allowing your staff to walk all over you while still demonstrating your human and caring side. It is inevitable that situations with your employees may arise when they have an ill child, a lack of childcare, the death of a loved one, or even something as simple as needing to take their car into the garage or have their boiler fixed at home. When you allow your team members to take time off when they are sick or injured and demonstrate compassion, you will gain their respect and loyalty, which will ensure that when they do return to work, they will be highly driven and productive to the greatest extent possible.

Everyone should be treated respectfully

Finally, the most important thing you can do is to treat everyone who works for you with dignity and respect, from the cleaner to the CEO and everyone in between. Businesses cannot function without the help of those individuals, and they are typically the ones who keep things running smoothly on a daily basis. Make certain that they are treated as such, and you will have a more loyal and productive team.

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Networking and Community Based Events

Let us be clear on one thing. Now you too can make working remotely more pleasant and fun by changing to working from coworking spaces. There are just so many benefits of working in such a relaxed and comfortable environment that almost everyone can get the hang of it. Here, one of the most common benefits of placing your workstation in a coworking space is the opportunity to connect with various like-minded people. These are professionals that you would almost certainly never get a chance to meet in real life..

This is because the concept has multiple networking features hardwired into its basic structure. For example, it is possible that you will be able to find monthly networking events with your fellow co-workers.  You might also find several fresh collaborators, even as you exercise your latent networking skills.  Your co-working space might also hold periodic writing workshops that will help you to enhance your skills no end.  Finally, power lunches will help you turn those casual events into long-lasting professional partnerships.

Such Spaces Help To Reduce the Loneliness of Remote Working

The world of co-working spaces is completely different from working from your living room. As a matter of fact, coworking spaces typically surround you with their own special network of top-notch professionals. Interacting with them will almost certainly help to reduce the isolation that is usually associated with remote working assignments.  In fact, many different research surveys have shown that there is the tremendous significance of seemingly small and sometimes irrelevant interactions on our overall sense of belonging. For example, a small chit chat with the friendly barista or the graphic designer in the next workstation can actually make you feel pretty happy. Such small everyday interactions are the very fabric of a close-knit professional community.  Just about everyone ranging from the individual who meets and greets you to the man sitting across the aisle adds to your sense of belonging.

Cost Savings and Flexibility

It does not matter if you are a freelance content writer just trying to find a drop-in space or for that matter the manager of a highly accomplished team. Even if you seek a single desk or a completely furnished private office, a coworking solution will always enable you to enjoy the best of both worlds, without ever compromising on your output. Most coworking spaces also install HVAC equipment to provide the optimal room temperature for better productivity. Since you won’t have to put your funds into costly leases, you will be able to grow at the pace you want instead of relying on other people. And you can downsize or upsize at your own convenience.

A Whole New World Of Convenience

Nowadays it is easy to find coworking spaces in almost every major city out there, for example, if you live somewhere near Denver, you could find many various coworking spaces in Denver available for your use. You just need to go out there and find the ideal one for yourself. And this holds true for just about every co-working solution that you may want to use.

Conclusion

Co-working spaces come in all kinds of sizes. Using such a space for your own writing team or even if you are a single writer can be a great help in helping you establish yourself as a full-fledged working professional. And what is more, you can do this in the midst of this terrible pandemic when old-fashioned offices are fast going out of fashion. So don’t wait, find your ideal co-working space today!

Guest Bio: Rachel Eleza is a marketing director at Upsuite and a writer for different websites. She loves reading and travelling. She is an ambitious woman and a hard-worker. When she’s not writing, she’s usually baking up a storm or trying to find new ways to get inspired. 

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With that idea in mind, what do business leaders need to do to make those crucial changes? What areas do they need to adapt in? Read on to find out more. 

Photo by Amina Filkins from Pexels

Embrace Disruption 

Any good leader must be willing to embrace disruption if and when it comes. They must be confident in this, and they must be firm in their ideas. If they can do this, those disruptive forces, which might initially have seemed like a bad thing, could turn into a lucrative opportunity. In many cases, embracing disruption is all about perspective; look at something in the right way, and even a negative can become a positive. 

Disruption is part of the 21st century. Nothing stays the same for very long, and you might feel that just as you’ve got to grips with one element of your business, it changes, or another area does, and you have to start learning all over again. 

Improve Decision-Making 

No matter how your business is faring right now, it would do a lot better if you were to improve your decision-making skills. The more quickly and confidently you can make decisions, whether that’s about whether to use a specific trading platform like MetaTrader 4, or to market to a particular audience, or anything else, the more quickly and confidently your business will grow. Since growth is the key to success, making decisions, even challenging ones, without delay is vital to all business owners. It’s not a skill that everyone has, but it is something that you can learn, and if you currently don’t possess the best decision-making skills, it’s time to do something about it or risk falling into obscurity through indecision. 

The best way to become better at making decisions within your business is to set clear goals. Writing a business plan that includes these goals is a useful exercise since it will allow you to really think about what you want to get out of your business and how you intend to do it. 

Understand Your Data 

Data is a hugely important part of any business, and without it, you wouldn’t know how to market your goods, who to market them to, or even whether what you’re doing is working or not. Yet data can be notoriously difficult to understand. Although it’s perfectly possible – and even recommended – to have a data analyst on board to help you make sense of the data you are collecting, it’s also a good idea to have a good understanding of it yourself; it will make what your data analyst tells you much clearer and will enable you to make a much better plan for the future. 

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Image Source: Unsplash

Typically, people and organizations set their objectives at the start of the new year. However, the coronavirus pandemic presents a unique opportunity to establish new goals. In fact, if you’re not using this time to establish and reach new goals (or at least rethink your old ones), you could be left in the dust when life starts to return to normal. Why not use this time to your advantage?

Before you get to goal setting, you should know that establishing new targets amidst a pandemic isn’t the same as writing out new resolutions before the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31. If you plan to use this time to establish better habits and reach new goals, you need to use a different approach.

Before You Set New Goals

While it’s tempting to jump right in, it’s important you have a solid base before establishing any new goals. Prior to turning your attention to anything else, take stock of your current situation to make sure you’re secure during this uncertain time. Be honest with yourself as you examine the protections you have in place for your family, finances, and business.

Due to the current state of the economy, small businesses, in particular, are at risk right now. If you have any doubts, seek legal advice for questions regarding issues such as employment law and contracts and how those things may have changed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

As you review your current situation, this is also a good time to note any bad habits that might hold you back from achieving your new goals. Since the start of the pandemic, many people have spent more time on their smartphones. With much of the world at home, screen time has dramatically increased across demographics. While scrolling Instagram and checking for new tweets may seem like innocent distractions, these habits can quickly turn into a smartphone addiction. According to Bradley University, Americans spend an average of 5.7 hours on their smartphones every day. If that sounds like you, just imagine how much you could accomplish if you put that time toward achieving your new goals. Success will likely mean stepping away from the screen or, at the very least, limiting the time you spend looking at it.

Flexibility Is Key

With an understanding of your current situation and any bad habits in check, you’re ready to establish and reach new goals. Regardless of where you set your sights, flexibility is essential.

Goal setting during the coronavirus pandemic is like walking across an icy parking lot. You may know where you want to go, but it’s likely you’ll need to make adjustments for how you get there.

At first glance, your path may seem clear. Then, you’ll step on a patch of black ice and need to catch yourself before you fall. In normal times, you’re able to set your goals with some basic guarantees in mind. In terms of the icy parking lot, perhaps you know the maintenance man salted it.

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, however, there are fewer givens. What you could count on in the past may no longer apply. That uncertainty makes flexibility critical. Set your goals with the understanding that they may need to change. As you work toward them, monitor your progress, and don’t be afraid to pivot if something isn’t working.

Communicate With Your Team

Like flexibility, communication is vital for establishing and reaching new goals during the coronavirus pandemic. Success doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and you will likely need to work with others to achieve your objectives.

Whether you’re leading during these uncertain times or trying to fulfill your responsibilities to the team, clear communication is a must. As your team establishes new goals and starts to work toward them, it should be understood that the organization is adapting as its learning.

If you’re a leader, be aware that team members are likely feeling anxious at this time. The best way to reassure them and reduce anxiety is with prompt and balanced communication.

Both leaders and team members should be wary of news sources. Harvard Business Review contributors Martin Reeves, Nikolaus Lang, and Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak suggest that organizations “don’t assume that information creates informedness.” When it comes to sharing news, they advise thinking critically and evaluating the source before acting on it.

Go Easy On Yourself

At this point, you’re likely inspired to make something positive out of this situation and start using the coronavirus to establish and reach new goals. But as you start working toward your new goals, remember to go easy on yourself. You are learning how to function in a pandemic. This is an unprecedented situation.

While those facts shouldn’t hold you back from pursuing new targets, they should be a part of how you frame your overall perspective. Much like transforming a bad day at work, you can acknowledge your situation while still controlling how you feel about it.

Above all, set and work toward goals with a resilient mindset. Even in the face of unpredictable challenges, people and organizations can survive and thrive with the right approach in place.

The post Using the Coronavirus to Establish and Reach New Goals appeared first on Gordontredgold.

1. Significant turnover

Even if voluntary departures, those linked to family reasons or those caused at the initiative of the employer exist in any company, the turnover rate is generally considered by many specialists as an indicator of the prevailing working in the social climate.

Staff turnover involves additional costs (recruitment, integration of new ones, etc.), prevents talent retention and reduces the cohesion of teams. If you notice many departures within your teams, ask yourself the right questions about your recruitment, management and even your business environment (a financial situation, competitiveness on the market, etc.).

Turnover is a separate problem and concerns 82% of HR managers. It is nonetheless one of the most important indicators of a bad atmosphere at work.

2. Repeated absences

The (extreme) stage of resignation is often preceded by recurrent absences from the employee. Repeated sick leave may imply a significant state of fatigue for the employee and a loss of motivation.

Short-term demotivation remains entirely human and conceivable. But in the long term, it will have consequences both at the company level (costs of absenteeism and sick leave to bear) and at the level of the employee who will no longer be as productive.

3. Loss of daily motivation

Without going as far as being absent, an employee can show many signs on a daily basis that attest to his loss of motivation at work. Like late arrivals, much longer and more frequent breaks than usual, less involvement in activities, lower productivity, lower quality of work, etc.

If each employee has their own pace of work, try to ensure regular monitoring to protect yourself from a significant and recurring decrease in their productivity reflecting their desire to look elsewhere.

4. Malicious communication around the company

Negative communication around the company develops systematically in the case of a harmful social environment. Employees become more dissatisfied and no longer hesitate to share them during their discussions with colleagues.

In addition, it is common today to use forums or exchange platforms to express bad experiences at work, or worse, to spread rumors aimed at harming your business. This will be all the more dangerous as it will ruin your e-reputation and your attractiveness towards the outside world and young talents in particular.

To remedy this, do not hesitate to examine your e-reputation in-depth and to regularly consult notices concerning your company in specialized sites (Linkedin, Glassdoor, etc.).

5. Reduced internal communication

In addition to harmful external communication, the bad atmosphere can also generate harmful internal communication for your own activities. Employees can reduce their communications to the absolute minimum and behave in an individualistic way when they no longer see their future in their current company. This will represent a real obstacle to your professional activities.

You can detect such problems when you find it difficult to obtain information that is essential for the proper functioning of your business. Or when you get radically different answers to the same question, showing a glaring lack of communication between your teams.

6. Too much internal rivalry

If competition is important to pull your employees up, it can be harmful when it weighs daily. Sometimes your employees forget that they are part of a “team” where their colleagues are partners with whom they must collaborate. Instead, they see them as their rivals, which can distorts professional relationships.

This is manifested by greater prudence of your employees and a greater isolation which is easily reflected in their daily lives (for example eating all the time alone at the office and not going to team lunches, no coffee break between colleagues, etc.)

7. Favoritism

Like turnover, favoritism is considered a classic indicator of a bad atmosphere at work. Faced with such situations, your employees will feel sidelined and not valued. Then encouraging them to contribute to the bad climate of your business.

To avoid this, have an ethics charter and clear regulations that do not tolerate abuse (sexism, racism, abuse of power, etc.). Then make sure that it is applied to everyone (and not just a few people) and that your employees’ promotions and rewards are only awarded on the basis of their merit.

8. Managers not sufficiently involved

A manager who is too absent from the demands of his teams or who never meets his obligations or requirements can directly influence the atmosphere that reigns within his teams. They will no longer have confidence in him.

Likewise, a manager who is too present or too imposing will have the same negative consequences. If he chastises or shouts often at his teams, if he shows no sign of recognition towards his colleagues or if he continually makes derogatory remarks, this will undoubtedly influence the social climate of your company.

Try to ensure solid and reciprocal links between managers and their teams. A manager must be open to others and be available so that they no longer feel isolated. Likewise, teams must keep in touch with their leader so that he feels involved in their team lives.

9. Little presence of HR

HR can have a key role in avoiding conflict. They can act as mediators in a company and manage problems between employees and managers.

If they fail in their roles or if they adopt questionable behaviors, this will strongly influence the well-being of your employees who will feel more isolated.

10. No activities outside of work

Teams who rub shoulders for months or years tend to organize events outside of work: afterworks, team lunches, departure pots, trips, integration evenings, etc. to get out of the sometimes monotonous framework of work.

If your teams organize little or never such activities, you might wonder about the cohesion of your company.

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Author Bio

Digvijay Rajdaan is Marketing Manager at Design By Lavassa and has served as the Head of Conversion Marketing at Planet Web Solution. He’s an expert in inbound marketing and lead generation.

The post The 10 Symptoms of a Bad Working Atmosphere appeared first on Gordontredgold.

Disclaimer: I’m not downplaying the severity of the situation.

It’s very likely that the events starting in China will lead to afinancial crisis and that it will severely affect the job market.

However, I’m trying to convey a simple fact: the world won’t stop after the crisis. It’s a good idea to spend these uncertain times building a business that will supplement your income in years to come.

Don’t quit your job (if you’re still employed)

The goal of starting your business as a side hustle is to generate multiple streams of income.

I’ve listened to a memorable discussion of this topic in the book The Parallel Entrepreneur by Ryan Buckley where he advises people to quit their jobs only after the income from side hustle surpasses the wage they get from the employer.

When you reach that milestone, Buckley says, you should start a second business. A new side hustle. He argues that firing multiple shots at once is better then just one at the time if the target is moveable.

Which business success certainly is.

By the way, if you’re lucky enough to be working for someone else while starting your side hustle, you must be careful about how you use the company’s inventory such as computers and smartphones.

You don’t want to mess with lawyers of your former employer once you set off on your own path.

Your time and resources are not really yourswhile you work for someone.

Be careful about that.

Find an intersection of what you love and what other people need

Having a side hustle is hard. To do it successfully, you need to invest at least 10 hours every week, but preferably more. And you need to do it consistently.

That’s why it’s better to use your existing skills and passions to fuel your early growth.

It’s much easier to work extra hours on a meaningful project where you can confidently take action.

Also, you should take into account what you can get paid for.

Another solid piece of advice from Ryan Buckley: sell your product or service to other businesses, not to customers.

When selling to other businesses you won’t typically need many transactions to earn a significant income. If you’re dealing with the B2C market you’ll probably need to scale the business and hire employees before you start earning decent money.

For example, B2B services like web design are great because they don’t require a lot of money to start with and profit margins can be high. Also, Ryan Buckley gives the example of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business.

The second reason to choose B2B over B2C markets is explained below. In short, it’s easier to make direct contact with business owners.

You don’t need their permission to send them an email.

Connect to your prospects

Now that you know what you’re going to offer, it’s time to make the first offer.

It doesn’t really matter what you’ll offer. You only need to do research on what others are doing and model it to fit your skills.

It’s way more important to start taking action. If you’re not sure what your market wants and how much they’re willing to pay for it, the best thing you can do is to create an offer and see if they’ll accept it.

Therefore, it’s crucial that you find a way to connect with your prospects. Either through Linkedin or email.

As I mentioned above, no matter which country your prospects are in, youdon’t need an opt-in from businesses to send them a commercial email. Anti-spam laws are aimed at B2C marketers.

However, it doesn’t mean that it’s ok to spam business owners. Quite contrary. It means that it’s ok to send them 2 or 3 emailsasking them for some time and attention.

If you engage with them more than that, you’d better have a good reason. Which brings us to the last point…

Optimize your offer

One legitimate reason to contact a single business owner more than three times is to inform him about different offers. The reason is this: if you’ve created the offer 2.0 following the market response to the first attempt, you’re doing them a favor by sending that email.

For example, you can find out that some offer works like a clock, both when you sell it and when you implement it. Then you can go back to your old list of prospects.

And reach out to those that didn’t reply to the first sequence.

You can tell them how you got good results in their niche and you’d like to share the details with them.

Of course, you won’t sell them their competitor’s (your client’s) data. That’s immoral.

Instead, you’ll present them with the strategy and tactics that you’ve used.

After you repeat this process a few times, you should find a sub-niche that fits your skills and passions.  And then, grow your business to the point of quitting the day job (and starting a new enterprise, if you ask Ryan Buckley…)

Conclusion

In the end, I just want to quickly summarize the main point of this article and offer advice to those that have lost their job.

Learn how to work in parallel, find your market, create, test and optimize the offer.

Repeat those steps until your side income becomes higher than the paycheck.

If you’ve lost your job, the difference is only that you’ll work on a side hustle while looking for a day job. It’s not a comfortable place to be, but it’s a great bet in the long run.

You have two shots instead of one.

Guest Post Author: Ivan Ilakovac is a freelance writer from Croatia who finally achieved a satisfactory level of English in his writing and is now looking to get published on blogs about business, culture, and other topics. His paycheck comes from direct sales, and his soul is replenished by philosophy and arts.  

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